Twelve Guardians Book 1  Finding Twelve
by GypsysGift
Summary: Response to Dragon Wolf-Tramers Challenge. The twelve guardians protected the land of fire for decades before they died. Now it's time for a new twelve to become guardians.
1. Prologue

**Ok, so this story is the first chapter (Well prologue but still) of my new story which is a response to Dragon Wolf-Tamer's challenge. It's basically what would happen if instead of the whole nine-tails being sealed into Naruto, it's split into fragments and sealed into eleven other babies as well (no points for guessing which ones). Hope you enjoy it! **

**Disclaimer No Jutsu – I do not own Naruto or anything related.**

**Prologue **

There were few who knew of the hidden room underneath the Hokage's tower, Kushina Uzamaki herself had not known of its existence until a few minutes before. It was more of a cavern than a room, built out of aged yellow stone that threatened to crumble into pieces at the slightest touch. For Kushina, who already knew she was dying, it was the least comforting idea she could have possibly contemplated at that moment in time, it must have been even worse for the other women in the room, all of whom had a good chance of surviving provided what they were about to attempt worked and/or the ceiling didn't fall in on them. There were twelve statues around the edge of the room, statues Kushina now knew as the Twelve Guardian Shinobi who had once protected the Land of Fire before even the Leaf Village was created. Sosui Namikaze, Kagami Uchiha, Yakuzai Haruno, Inu Inuzuka, Konchuu Abuarme, Taiyou Hyuuga. Ganjou Akimichi, Kage Nara, Kokoro Yamanaka, Sumiyaka, Irai and Hinoiri Hyuuga. Before that night, those names had all been something from a fairytale, now, it was more like a nightmare.

The women were standing in a circle around the room, one under every statue , each clutching their babies as if they were lifelines. Looking around , Kushina sent a silent prayer to whoever was listening that Minato would be successful. Looking down at her own baby, she attempted to smooth down his unruly blonde hair, before admitting defeat, he was too much like his father to ever have tidy hair. A single tear ran down Kushina's face when she suddenly realized that unlike the other mothers in the room, she was never going to see her child grow up. 'But at least he won't have to go through what I went through.' She thought to herself. Outside the village, the Kyuubi was slaughtering thousands of Leaf-Village shinobi, the same Kyuubi that had once been sealed inside of her. She remembered well the terrifying sensation of having the Kyuubi take over, the pain its anger caused, she didn't know how she could stand herself for inflicting the same thing on her son. They'd explained to her, Minato and Jiraiya, how this time would be different, how the nine-tails was being sealed into twelve children, not just one, in the same way it had been sealed inside the twelve guardian shinobi centuries ago. How, even though Naruto would still carry the largest portion of the Nine Tails' power, once the Kyuubi was split into tiny pieces, it became gentler and less malevolent. Kushina for one, didn't believe them. For a second she contemplated running away before the worst happened but then two things happened. The first thing was that every baby in the room simultaneously started crying as dark red spirals appeared briefly on their stomachs before fading again. That was the last thing Kushina saw before she died. As she slipped further into the blackness her mind was filled with the most incredible sense of relief. Yes her son would have to carry the nine-tails, but he would not have to do it alone.


	2. Chapter 2  Nobody's Home

**Hi guys, sorry for the incredibly long hiatus. My laptop was broken and I only just got it back. My entire memory was wiped, just prolonging the amount of time until I could write this, as I had to completely re-install word on my laptop! Anyway, here it is, the next chapter of the twelve guardians. Expect another update either today or tomorrow, and updates of the Copy Ninja's Team-Mate and The New Hero tomorrow or Monday. After that, it's back to updating as normal (once a week per story unless for some other reason I change it:) ) **

**Disclaimer – I do not own Naruto or anything related, not even Sasuke :( **

**N/B, the story starts just after Naruto,Sasuke and Sakura are put into a team, during the whole D-rank mission period :) **

**Enjoy and please review!**

The streets of Konoha, though full of sunlight and cheery faces for almost everybody who had the privilege of wandering through them, were no friend to the small ,blonde twelve year old the village knew as Naruto Uzumaki. He hurried home from training without glancing to his left or right, knowing all too well what kind of looks he was getting from the villagers. It had been like that ever since he was small, he didn't know why but that was just the way it was. They called him a freak and a loser, a disgrace to the name of shinobi, even though he wasn't technically a ninja yet. He'd heard it all and seen it all and he was quite frankly sick of all of it.

It was only as he rounded a corner that a voice broke through the deep depths of his sorrowful thoughts. Looking up, he was surprised to see Sakura Haruno, his best (only) friend since he was five, standing not five yards in front of him. "Naruto," she sighed in the slightly whiny voice she'd been using on him since they were small. "Didn't you hear me? I've been yelling your name for the past five minutes!" Naruto grinned ruefully. "Sorry Sakura, I was just – thinking." He muttered. Sakura raised her eyebrows. "Penny for them," she asked before Naruto shot her a look that explained exactly what he'd just been thinking about.

They'd been friends for years but even then, Naruto knew - because Kiba Inuzuka, one of his regular tormentors had often taken pleasure in telling him – that the only reason Sakura had even become his friend in the first place was that her mother had known Naruto's own mother very well before she died. Mrs. Haruno and her daughter were the only people apart from Iruka-sensei and maybe the Lord Hokage that didn't think Naruto was a total freak, and Sakura had known Naruto long enough to know just how much that knowledge hurt him inside, even if he never showed it. "Naruto," she said softly. "Just ignore them, they don't know what they're talking about." Naruto nodded, a lump forming in his throat from the effort of holding back the tears that always came when Naruto thought too much of the villagers and their unexplainable hatred for him. Suddenly, he would've given anything to just be away from that place, away from the streets where he knew he wasn't really safe but then again, he had no real wish to go back to the empty apartment he'd spent the last few years of his existence in. "Hey Sakura, I don't feel like going home yet – do you want to get some ramen or something?" he asked hopefully.

To his immense surprise, however, her face fell. "Sorry Naruto, I'd love to –but I can't," she said in a tiny voice. Naruto was just opening his mouth to ask why when he noticed the glazed expression that was creeping across Sakura's pale green eyes. His heart, that was just beginning to feel a lighter, sank like a stone to the pit of his stomach. "It's Sasuke, isn't it?" Sakura cringed, Naruto took that as a yes. "It's just – well I heard him tell Kakashi-Sensei that he was going to practice his jutsu after training , and I thought, that maybe I'd help him." She said all this very fast and in the couple of seconds it took Naruto to process all of it, she'd turned on her heel and disappeared.

Naruto didn't mind that Sakura had gone off with Sasuke, after all, he was an annoying jerk and one of these days Sakura was going to realize that. What he did mind, was the fact that she hadn't been planning on telling him. From what he'd gathered from listening in on other people's conversations, best friends were supposed to tell each-other everything, something Sakura never seemed to do. Sighing, he continued walking, resigned to eating his dinner alone(by the way, I'm kind of assuming from something said in the first few episodes that Naruto can't really afford Ichi Raku by himself, which is why he's not as enthusiastic about ramen as usual). That is, until, he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. Just emerging from a non-descript shop behind him, was a small, snowy-white puppy, which was sniffing the evening air as if looking for something in particular. The minute it saw Naruto it barked loudly, grabbing the attention of his owner who was only a few steps behind him. Kiba Inuzuka, Naruto's tormentor for almost as long as he could remember, caught his eye and smirked, revealing a set of sharp white teeth that bore an unnerving resemblance to his dog's.

Panic rushing through his veins, ice-cold and numbing, Naruto stared at Kiba , eyes wide like a rabbit caught in headlights. They'd detested each-other for years, ever since Naruto had humiliated him in front of the whole class at the academy. It had been a meaningless prank but for some reason, Kiba had never gotten over it. As he took one menacing step towards Naruto, Kiba's foot landed on a piece of paper that had been blown onto the street. The quiet cracking sound brought Naruto back to his senses. Without looking back, he turned and ran. He had no idea where he was going, only that it was far, far, away.

He ran for a good quarter of an hour before his sides started to burn and his breaths became sore and painful in the back of his throat. He could still hear Kiba's footsteps ,however, so forced himself to keep going. Suddenly he realized he was nearing the Hokage's Tower. Beforehand, he'd just been running aimlessly, but the minute he recognized his gaze landed on the rapidly approaching building, he knew, somehow, that if he could only get to it, he'd be safe. He was minutes from it now, almost there. If he could just get to the bottom of this ally-way, he'd be ok. He was just coming round the back of it, he could almost _see_ the door when –

CRACK!

His foot hit the street and went _through _it, and suddenly he was falling, down, down, down, and all he could see was blackness.

**Did you guys enjoy it? If so(or even if you didn't, I'm not picky) please review, it makes me smile :) **


	3. Chapter 3 Next Will Be Twelve

**Ok, so happy update day again! I'm sorry last weeks was such a let down, I had a severe case of writers block that rendered me incapable to write a coherent sentence until sometime yesterday. I hope you guys enjoy this new chapter, please review and tell me if you did !**

**Disclaimer No Jutsu! – I do not own Naruto or anything related.**

The first thing Naruto noticed after the initial agony of hitting a very, very solid surface after a very, very long fall he was most definitely not planning on having, was that he was in total darkness. It wasn't just that he couldn't see where he was - he couldn't see _anything._ Not his hand in front of his face or his feet in their dark blue sandals , not even his bright orange jumpsuit – nothing. It was a darkness he'd never found himself in before, a darkness he just couldn't even begin to understand. He'd never been in a place where there wasn't even a ray of light or a tiny glimmer of brightness. Naruto got shakily to his feet, heart hammering in his chest, wondering wildly how he was supposed to find his way back up to the outside world when he couldn't even see two feet in front of him.

That was when he heard it. A faint whisper of a sound. It could have been a laugh, it could have been a shout, it could have been a scream, it was too far away and too faint for Naruto to be able to tell, but of one thing he was a hundred percent sure. It hadn't come from the streets of Konoha somewhere up above his head, it had come from down there in the strange blackness. And if the sound had come from the same place as Naruto was in, then that meant he knew one more thing about the place he was in. Wherever he was, Whatever this place was generally used for – he was not alone.

"Hello," he called, his voice sounding far smaller and weaker than it normally did. "Is anyone there?" Silence. As absolute and impenetrable as the darkness. "Hello," Naruto called again, a little louder now. Still no-one surprised. Then a horrifying thought came to life in his mind. What if this was all just an illusion cast by Kiba to try and freak him out, what if he'd fallen right into the trap of one of his greatest enemies? Thoughts racing, he racked his brain what Kakashi had taught them about illusions the week before. For some reason the thought that such an illusion was almost definitely beyond Kiba didn't spring to mind as he hurriedly put his hands together in the tiger seal and tried to summon what little chakra he had left after that day's rigorous training session. Hoping against hope that it wasn't just wishful thinking, he took a deep breath and then screamed 'Release!' at the top of his lungs, trying to unleash as much chakra as possible whilst doing so

In a way, it worked. Something did happen - something _did _change. But it wasn't anything like Naruto had thought it would be. With an immense crack, torches began to flicker into life all around Naruto. With their light he was just able to make out the rough walls of what was an immense circular room lined with statues. But what fixated him at that moment in time wasn't the size of the room, or the immense statues of figures whose names he would have surely known if only he'd been born a few decades earlier. The thing Naruto couldn't take his eyes off of was a glowing orb of bright blue light, light that anybody else would have instantly recognized as chakra, that was hovering a few meters away from his face. For some reason, he couldn't stop staring at it. He tried to turn his face away but his neck suddenly seemed stiff and numb, he tried to shut his eyes tight but it was like his eyelids had been stuck in their place. He tried to open his mouth to yell for help but his jaw was locked in its rigid position. He was completely paralyzed. And that was when the pain started – white hot needles that shot through his skin directly over the part of his torso marked with what he'd always thought was a dull, rust-colored birthmark, which he now knew to be the mark of the Kyuubi, the reason for all the years of suffering at the hands of the villagers and his fellow ninja that Naruto had never deserved. The pain was almost unbearable, if he'd been able to move, Naruto would have screamed. He was sure he must be bleeding but he couldn't move his head to see. All he could do was stand and stare at the orb of chakra as it began to change it's shape altogether.

* * *

><p>Sasuke Uchiha strode through the streets of Konoha without a care in the world except for the fact that Sakura Haruno was hot on his heels and that it was impossible to get her to shut up. He'd held out hope for the first few days of their being in a team together that his most faithful of all admirers would start to leave him alone the minute she realized that he really wasn't anything like the person she always made him out to be, but had come to the understanding after a week that nothing could change Sakura's image of the perfect ninja and that in her head, that ninja was Sasuke. So he let her walk behind him as he made his way slowly to the apartment the Hokage had bought for him a few days after his clan was massacred, knowing that soon enough she'd be forced to go to her own home, which was thankfully in a totally different part of the village. That is, until he saw Kiba Inuzuka, red-faced and panting on a street corner, an irate expression on his face. Sasuke raised his eyebrows and quickened his step, not wanting to have to speak to the Team 8 ninja who was convinced that Sasuke was the only ninja of their age in the village who matched up to his own level of excellence and was therefore always trying to engage him in lengthy conversations about who Sasuke thought would be the first in their year to make Chunnin. Kiba on the other hand, had other ideas.<p>

"Hey Uchiha!" he yelled across the street, making most of the passing villagers heads jerk up in surprise. "Where's your idiot team-mate?" Sasuke sighed and turned to face Kiba. "What – Naruto?" he drawled slowly. "No idea but whatever he broke, I'm not paying for it." To his surprise, Sakura didn't laugh the way she normally did at his half-jokes but instead shot him a look that could almost have been a glare before speaking up herself. "What's wrong Kiba?" The other ninja glowered. "He only just went and vanished. I was just trying to catch up to him, to give him what's been coming to him these past few weeks," at this he gave Sasuke a conspiratorial look that the Uchiha did not return. "And he just vanished, no-where to be seen. One minute he was there, one minute he wasn't." Sasuke glanced at Sakura who was hanging on Kiba's every word, an anxious look growing in her pale green eyes. "Where was this?" he asked Kiba who pointed back the way he must have just come, towards the Hokage's Tower. "Come on," Sasuke muttered to Sakura as he made to follow Kiba's direction. "Where are you going," Sakura asked, confused. Sasuke sighed. Honestly, he wasn't quite sure how he could explain it. All he knew was that there was a memory, not a long one, or a particularly precious one, but a memory all the same. "To return an old favor."

* * *

><p>Naruto watched as the ice-blue chakra turned into a fox. It was immense,<p>

towering high above Naruto himself. What made it terrifying to Naruto though, wasn't its size, but it's nine frantically waving, lashing tails. It was the Kyuubi, the same creature that Naruto had so recently discovered was sealed inside of him, the same creature that his body was being used to provide a prison for. Naruto had never seen an image before, had no idea what the demon really looked like but he knew enough to recognize it the minute he saw it in front of him. Suddenly there appeared beside it, eight other creatures, all just as horrifying, each of them with a different number of tails. For a second Naruto forgot about the searing pain in his stomach, forgot about the fact he was unable to move a muscle, all he could think about was the fury and loathing in the eyes of those creatures, the aura of pure, untamable power that radiated from them, none more so than the Kyuubi. Naruto didn't think he'd ever been so scared of something in his life. Until the voice began speaking inside of his head. It was soft and quiet but at the same time powerful, and Naruto noted absentmindedly that it was almost impossible to tell if it was male or female.

'_There are many tailed beasts.' _It said, and Naruto was once again

powerless to do anything but stand and stare at the images that were being formed by the blue chakra. _'Wild and powerful - totally out of control. Though none more so than the Kyuubi, the nine-tailed demon fox.' _An image flashed before Naruto's eyes of the same hideous creature he'd seen before, tails lashing wildly about it as it demolished a village that wasn't, Naruto was glad to note, the Leaf Village. _'In the end,'_ The voice continued. _'The creature became too much of a threat to remain free so twelve brave, honorable men, some of the first Shinobi, stepped in.' _The chakra changed into the shapes of twelve tall, strong-looking men, all with their backs to Naruto. _'They trapped the Kyuubi and split it's essence into twelve equal portions, trapping it inside of each of their bodies.' _Naruto watched as a ray of light, bright white like a star, appeared suddenly over the head of the Kyuubi that had begun to loom threateningly over the twelve men. The light grew in size until it was an orb roughly the same size of the Kyuubi, moving closer and closer to it until it had trapped all of the immense demon's form inside of it. The light then split into twelve portions, each portion flying towards one of the twelve men. _'The Kyuubi inside of them gave each of the men immense power but as soon as its malevolent soul was split into pieces, the nine-tails became instantly less angry, eventually agreeing to work with the twelve men as they endeavored to use their immense gifts to help protect what was to become the Land Of Fire. They called themselves the twelve guardians.' _Naruto watched as various scenes were formed in the chakra of each of the men fighting various enemy ninja and vicious creatures as they tried to enter what looked like a much smaller version of the Leaf Village. _'They fought for the Land of Fire for decades, until eventually they died and the Leaf Village decided that to have a weapon that could help them defeat all the other nations, they had to entrap the whole of the beast, not just small portions of it, into a prepared host. A host they began to call a Jinchuuriki.' _

Naruto couldn't help but feel a pang of hatred towards whoever had

decided that they'd rather inflict a life of greater pain and suffering on one person and make him a weapon than give him a burden that could be shared with eleven others. He knew that he had been intended to be, not a weapon, but the only way to save the village, but that still didn't mean he didn't wish that there had been some other way, not just for him but for all those who'd come before him, and those who would come afterwards. But the voice hadn't finished with him and once more he had to stop and listen. _'But one day, there will come a day when the Land of Fire will need guardians, a time when they are once again in need of Twelve Jinchuuriki. And then history will find it repeats itself.' _

The Chakra began swirling and writhing, twisting itself into shapes Naruto couldn't even begin to recognize until he realized they were words. Words that would find themselves imprinting themselves on his brain in years to come.

_Psychic, _

_Mimic,_

_Healer,_

_Mind,_

_Spy,_

_Past Sight, _

_Future Sight,_

_Strength,_

_Speed,_

_Marksman,_

_Tracker, _

_Mind-Reader, _

_There Will Be Twelve _

Suddenly, Naruto felt the paralysis that had been holding him in the same spot, break at exactly the same time as the pain In his stomach became far too much to bear. Hand pressed over the rust-red spiral etched into his skin, he found himself falling forward into blackness.

* * *

><p>Moments later, Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno found him, sprawled on the ground in the middle of the street behind the Hokage's tower. There was blood on his jump-suit and on his forehead and neither of his team-mates could explain to Kakashi who they'd run into on the way to the Tower, how it had got there. None of them could have known as Kakashi lifted Naruto onto his back that on his stomach, covering the old rust-red spiral, was a new symbol, the source of all the blood. A twelve pointed star, separated by an X into four sections, that glowed softly red underneath Naruto's black T-shirt. The mark of the twelve guardians.<p>

**So what did you guys think? Do you like where it's going? If so please tell me in a review, they make me smile and want to keep on writing for you guys (ok well I always want to write for you guys but whatever) Oh and extra cookies to anyone who guesses what the favor is that Sasuke has to repay… just a warning you won't actually find out the answer for a couple more chapters but if you can guess I will be very impressed!**


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